With what feels like continuous rain throughout January and February, the available days for field work have been limited, although with a few days of dry weather and the arrival of a few rays of sunshine we were able to make a start in places towards the end of February.
The prolonged wet weather and cool conditions have proved ideal for the early appearance of chocolate spot in winter beans. It is easy to find low levels in most winter bean crops, although in some instances worryingly high levels can be seen. Yield losses of 25% are not uncommon, rising to 50% in high pressure years. If the wet weather continues, this disease will continue to be a threat and the options for control are predominantly protectant. Close monitoring and earlier than normal treatment may well be required this year.
While it feels like conditions should have been harsh for any insect life, it wasn’t too difficult to find aphids present on late drilled cereals that hadn’t received an aphicide or on earlier drilled crops that missed the second planned application. As soon as cereal crops start stem extension, any effect from barley yellow dwarf virus is dramatically reduced.
While the residual herbicides have delivered good levels of weed control in the autumn, their persistence doesn’t last forever; as the soil warms up, the inevitable germination of broadleaved weeds and spring germinating grass weeds will begin. One of the most persistent germinating weeds following legume fallow is phacelia. It highlights how important it is to manage the seed return in these sustainable farming incentive (SFI) options. Where topping before seed set was missed or too late, the seed return is huge and just keeps germinating!
As soon as nitrogen has been applied there will be some well-developed oilseed rape and cereal crops that will require a growth regulator as stem extension will not be far away, if it isn’t already there on some forward winter barley crops. If conditions are still cool, choosing the correct growth regulator that works in cooler conditions will be required.
